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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 83.255.46.175 (talk) at 07:40, 10 August 2015 (→2-minute difference between time in signature and history: <small> parentheses). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia. Bug reports and feature requests should be made in Phabricator (see how to report a bug). Bugs with security implications should be reported differently (see how to report security bugs).

Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk.


Blank thumbnail with upright

Would anybody have any idea why upright produces a blank thumbnail with the example below? Alakzi (talk) 12:57, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

[[File:Parodie.svg|thumb]] [[File:Parodie.svg|thumb|upright]]

Silly me, I'm using a 300px default, so upright should be 230px for everybody else (on the right). Alakzi (talk) 13:11, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever, this works for me (but is not wanted, right?)
[[File:Parodie.svg|thumb|300px]]

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:14, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's blank because Mediawiki fails to render the SVG (upright is irrelevant here). -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 20:09, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It used to be that it would render it at some sizes. I supposed the cache has been cleared. Alakzi (talk) 22:54, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Why are only my mobile web edits ever tagged as mobile edits?

Even my edits right now are mobile edits, but they are only tagged as mobile edits when I make them using the mobile version of the website. What's the problem here? Dustin (talk) 17:42, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if there is a problem. Have you run into a use case where it was problematic that edits made with the desktop site from a mobile device was not tagged as a mobile edit?--Anders Feder (talk) 19:13, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
What is the point of a tag if it doesn't work properly? Dustin (talk) 20:16, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
What leads you to conclude that the function is not "proper"? The point of the tags is filtering and analytics.--Anders Feder (talk) 20:38, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it works as intended as far as I know. The mobile version works differently and displays some things differently or not at all. When evaluating edits it can be helpful to know they were made with the mobile version. When discussing with a user it can be helpful to know what they see (it's certainly very helpful at the help desks where I answer questions). The developers may use it to investigate software issues. If a user edits with the desktop version then I don't see good reason to know whether they did it on a mobile device. If a user edits with the mobile version on a desktop computer then the edit is tagged with mobile and that makes sense to me. Special:Tags displays MediaWiki:Tag-mobile edit-description for "Mobile edit", and MediaWiki:Tag-mobile web edit-description for "Mobile web edit". This change seems wrong but the former version was also inaccurate. The default "Edit made from mobile (web or app)" should probably be restored. I think "Mobile edit" is for all edits with either the mobile version or some app, while "Mobile web edit" is only for the mobile version, and "Mobile app edit" is only for apps. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:05, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's a more complicated tag than I originally though, isn't it? In any case, thanks for the in-depth response. Dustin (talk) 02:02, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

PrimeHunter's explanation is exactly correct. Thanks! --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 23:50, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Black berry app is down

So https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/105171/ seems to be the official Wikipedia app for BlackBerry. However I'm getting this error:

Unknown item
The requested item does not exist or is not available. (EC)

Please check it. I made a talk page entry on List of Wikipedia mobile applications yet nobody replied. Also I Help:Mobile access was notified of this in January 2014 yet nobody replied so far.

Not sure where else to report this. I now took the app off those articles.

--Fixuture (talk) 17:47, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As you can see here: Help:Mobile_access#Official_application, there is no longer and official supported BlackBerry application. There used to be one, but it was removed from the BlackBerry AppWorld store. Wherever you find that URL still listed, you are encouraged to remove it or at least mark it as no longer valid. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:31, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@TheDJ: Yes it's not there anymore as I just removed it as written above. Note that the black berry app was still linked on both sites for at least 1,5 years after the first notice on the talk page about it being down. I guess it's not really problematic or anything but sometimes I'm really confounded by Wikipedia's organisation - one would expect there to be some major notice (a minor comment on some talk page to confirm it actually being down would have sufficed as well) somewhere about it being taken down / not being supported anymore with the developers themselves taking it off all articles the same day that it's not supported anymore... --Fixuture (talk) 18:09, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Issue reported at Theodore Roosevelt

Hello technical folk,

User:Smykytyn reports: This page does not currently display correctly on iPad, unlike all other President pages. It shows up in single column form appropriate for iPhone, not iPad. This seems to be a fairly recent development. My guess is this is a user-side settings issue, but I'm passing on the message in case someone with better technical knowledge can take a look at the page to see if there's something there messing things up, or maybe can offer help to this user on how to get things working. Thanks. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 21:29, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This is due to the usage of stack begin/end templates, which cause the infobox to be in a single file column, instead of right floated. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:35, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dabbing in a cathead navy patrol vessels template

Category:Patrol vessels of the Georgian Navy uses Template:Cathead navy patrol vessels. Is there any way to dab the link from Georgia to Georgia (country) but make it display as Georgia? DuncanHill (talk) 21:32, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Can you now? No. Could one after changing the template? Ostensibly. --Izno (talk) 00:18, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Content Translation scourge

I'm venting, but I've had it with fixing articles created with the Content Translation scourge

An example is this mess. Original article is here. Majority of the problems I've seen is contained in this article.

  1. Why does the scourge add wikilinks to dates on enwiki?
  2. Why does it not always translate dates? The above article translated [[2009년 3월]] to [[March 2009|2009년 3월]]. Others do 12 de noviembre de 2014 to 12 de noviembre de 2014.
  3. Why does it add random [[?
  4. Why does it add random wikilinks?
  5. Why does it add color in random spots that the original doesn't have?
  6. Why does it add random <span> </span>?
  7. Why does it add random span tags around text, especially if the text was in a template on the original article? For example, <span>1995 April 12</span><span> (20)</span>
  8. Why does it screw up tables. I'm not talking about the copious id="666" tags, but messing things up. For example in this section, everywhere there was a blank cell, it droped the cell. Instead of a blank cell where the person was born, they now ended up being born on Protoss or Zerg. It can't handle blank cells.
  9. Why does it not translate a cite template correctly? Atleast I know what "titel", "autor" and "título" means, but not Content Translation tool. Another example.
  10. Why does it translate somethings in a list/table/section, but not others?
  11. Report a problem to Content Translation and they say to report it to Parsoid. Content Translation uses Parsoid. Parsoid says it is fixed, but Content Translation uses a different version of Parsoid.
  12. Content Translation uses Apertium for translating. It doesn't support Japanese, Korean and many others. According to the Apertium's wikipage, only 7 languages can be translated to English. This probably explain why the above article was only half way translated.
  13. Majority of people using Content Translation don't cleanup the mess.

Anyone want to cleanup, little alone understand 2nd generation Intel core global StarCraft II league March? Bgwhite (talk) 23:12, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Then nominate the articles for deletion like we always do with bad quality stuff. It's a tool, not pixie dust. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:21, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Try mw:Talk:Content translation. Eman235/talk 15:13, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
May also be good to get the thoughts of the person who created these two articles, Dakarias. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 19:35, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure what all these weird happenings are- I just try to translate the text, and nothing else. -Kurousagi 23:38, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Something I can also add is that the highlighting happens automatically for some reason. The partly translated problem was because I'm still trying to translate the names for various leagues and such using outside sources. -Kurousagi 23:42, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like only the first revision was done with Content Translation, and the rest was done by hand. Judging from this diff, we have Dab Solver to thank for the colours. Some things, like the table cell problem, look to be bugs in Content Translation, but others, like the [[ thing, look to be good old-fashioned user error. As for Apertium, if people are submitting purely (or mostly) machine-translated stuff, then it should be nominated for deletion. I don't think Apertium's machine translation was used at all in this case, however; it just looks like the translation was a little too literal. I know from experience that it's surprisingly hard to generate coherent text when translating things from Japanese, and I imagine the same thing holds true for Korean. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 02:45, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Things that are totally messed up are getting deleted. The above article was just one example of the crap this produces. Dab Solver has nothing to do with some of the random colours. How can a sentences in a plain paragraph be translated to have it's background go red? Majority of people using the tool are not fixing the issues or they don't know how too. Other people on French Wikipedia want it disabled. Bgwhite (talk) 07:06, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I have no idea of the highlights other than the fact that it 'temporarily' highlights text when copying over from one side of the Content Translation tool. And yes, the machine translation was supposedly 'unavailable'. -Kurousagi 10:36, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Module:OSM

Hi,

I created a module to link to objects on Openstreetmap and visualise them. To accomplish this a few conditions have to be met:

  • the OSM object needs wikidata tag(s)
  • Overpass API needs to be able to retrieve them
  • Turbo Overpass is needed to show them on a dynamic map
  • somebody had to write some Lua code to glue it all together

So I did. You can see the result in the Leuven article. Hopefully this is useful to link to geographical objects.--Polyglot (talk) 23:35, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I guess it's kind of cool, but...
  1. the link has no text associated with it
  2. when I click on it, I get a mostly grayed out page with no indication that anything is happening
  3. eventually I get a warning about large amounts of data
  4. when the map does show up, it's a world map with a bunch of red circles and no obvious information
  5. clicking on a circle brings up some OSM metadata that is not immediately useful
  6. clicking on some random number finally zooms in to the street
So I like it but the UI is not obvious. Kendall-K1 (talk) 01:16, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Can't leave edit summaries

I haven't been able to leave edit summaries or other fillable forms like section headers since July 31st. If I do it only registers random letters which I don't even see until I save. I am running Chrome OS 45 (beta). Mark Schierbecker (talk) 06:58, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a broken browser extension/addon or something. And you can always check if the stable version of Chrome works for you of course. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:18, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Image properly rotated and not properly rotated

What's going on with File:La Grange Civil War monument.jpg? When I view it in IE11, I get different results at different resolutions — at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Grange_Civil_War_monument.jpg it's properly upright, but at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/La_Grange_Civil_War_monument.jpg (what I get when I click the image), it's sideways. Nyttend (talk) 00:08, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/La_Grange_Civil_War_monument.jpg (wikilink Media:La Grange Civil War monument.jpg) is the actual file that was uploaded. The result of viewing it depends on the used software. I see it sideways in IE9 and upright in Firefox 39.0. If you click "Show extended details" at File:La Grange Civil War monument.jpg#metadata then it says "Rotated 90° CCW". The photographer probably rotated the camera due to the height to width ratio, and the camera or the photographer registered this in the metadata. When the image is scaled by our servers, they register the metadata says rotated and they rotate it back before sending it to your browser, so the result no longer depends on the browser. The only way to display the original Media:La Grange Civil War monument.jpg right in all browsers is to download it, rotate it with some software, and upload the new version. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:24, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Weird. I wonder how the camera rotated it (I'm the photographer), because I didn't tell it to do any rotation. I'll file a WP:GL request. Nyttend (talk) 00:32, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If you haven't cropped the photo them I'm fairly certain you tilted the camera 90° when you took the photo. The camera must have a way to detect this. The Commons file page commons:File:La Grange Civil War monument.jpg has a "request rotation" link. I haven't tried clicking such links. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:38, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I rotated the camera 90°, indeed, but I routinely do this when getting images of taller subjects. I don't remember encountering this situation before, although now to my surprise I'm finding that the same is true of File:Main across from courthouse, Jackson.jpg, and File:Emporium First UMC.jpg from some months ago, and even File:Pauley Bridge pier.jpg from when the camera was really new for me. I haven't a clue how to disable this...Nyttend (talk) 00:44, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter: The "request rotation" link (which doesn't appear on all image types) fires a JavaScript thing (see c:Help:RotateLink) which displays a dialog; when you pick an angle (e.g. 90°) and click confirm rotate request, it does this, which displays a message and puts the image in c:Category:Images requiring rotation by bot, for Rotatebot (talk · contribs) to notice and act on. So if you don't have JavaScript (or don't like dialog boxes) it's very easy to do it manually; and it's also easy to undo if you change your mind. --Redrose64 (talk) 09:59, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Taking a cursory look at the Exif specification, I can't even decide whether it is a bug in the camera or our server. The tag allows one to express how the image is "oriented", but crucially leaves it an open question at which orientation one would normally want to display the image.--Anders Feder (talk) 01:23, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I can't view or access the large-size version, but I can access the "original", which downloads to my PC is being rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:15, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Reverting category moves

The category Category:FC Astana players was moved to Category:Astana F.C. players by ChelseaFunNumberOne. The move was then reverted by GiantSnowman, but Category:FC Astana players must be deleted first. Category moves should be able to be reverted without having to first delete the soft redirected category as long as it has only revision in its history (like reverting any other move). GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 03:33, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@GeoffreyT2000: There is a significant difference by moving categories. The remaining page will contain the {{Category redirect}} template instead of the usual content of redirects. Armbrust The Homunculus 14:52, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the default MediaWiki behaviour is to automatically make a normal redirect to the new name when a category or other page is moved. A page can only be moved back to the old name by a non-admin if the only edit in its page history is this redirect. But the English Wikipedia has a feature for category moves where the English Wikipedia template {{Category redirect}} is added to the page instead of making it a redirect. A side effect of this is that the category cannot be moved back by a non-admin. It's rarely relevant and doesn't seem worth bugging developers about. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:06, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The content of the old category page is determined by MediaWiki:Category-move-redirect-override. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:10, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Sajax library will be removed from MediaWiki next week

I've just found out from phab:T55120 that the Sajax JavaScript library will be removed from MediaWiki next week (12 August for non-Wikipedias and 13 August for Wikipedias). This means that all of the 739 scripts that use it, 451 of which are on this wiki, are going to break. Most of those are not important, but I am sure that quite a few of them are still in use. I've made a list of all the affected scripts at User:Mr. Stradivarius/Scripts using Sajax. Now would be a good time to have a look through them and determine the ones that we need to prioritise fixing. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 05:20, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Good riddance, I say! Sajax should have been killed off years ago.
It's great that you've prepared this list. Do you think it would be worth sending a mass message to all the concerned users?
Also, would you object if I sorted the list? It would make it a little more useful to identify users with several affected scripts in their userspace. — This, that and the other (talk) 09:41, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, it would definitely be worth a mass-message. Let me prepare it - with some module coding we should be able to make a personalised message for all the affected users, on all wikis, in one shot. And yes, feel free to sort the list however you want, and especially to remove false positives or scripts that have been fixed. :) I've done a preliminary sort, but if that's not what you were looking for, feel free to tweak it. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 13:53, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, it's pretty late here now, so mass-messaging will have to wait until tomorrow. If anyone wants to write a message in the meantime, be my guest. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 15:49, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Another thing that is coming, is that you can no longer use document.write() to load a script. See also T107399 and T108139. The fallback will try to asynchronously append to the end of the document, but if your script/gadget after 7 years of deprecation, still requires synchronous execution, then expect it to break. For the rest of us, we get faster page rendering !!! —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:12, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to put this in the mass message as well, but it looks like I'll have to update my searcher script to use the API timeout properly, as on this wiki alone I get 11,447 hits. This really worries me - did no-one at the WMF think to check how many users would be affected by this change? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 13:53, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. If Jimbo is still using Monobook at all, then his scripts are going to be broken too... — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 14:15, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm really hoping there's a non-Sajax script for closing featured picture candidates. The ones I know about require it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:14, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
...Oh, dear: this appears to break WP:TWINKLE. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:20, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Twinkle shouldn't be affected: the only gadgets affected by the removal of Sajax are MediaWiki:RefToolbarLegacy.js and MediaWiki:Gadget-dropdown-menus-nonvector.js. If people have old copies of Twinkle around that use Sajax, then they would stop working, however. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 14:27, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) @Adam Cuerden: Probably not, but the ones that require it can be updated. Fixing a script to stop it depending on Sajax isn't hard, but it's also not a no-brainer, so it will require us to prioritise what should be fixed. Scripts like the ones you mention will be high up the list - which ones are they? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 14:22, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
User:Adam_Cuerden/closeFPC.js (I'm not that good at Javascript, I should say: I just made a small change to fix some rearrangements of the Featured pictures system), and whichever of the many results for twinkle in User:Mr._Stradivarius/Scripts_using_Sajax are part of the core gadget are big ones, I'd say. There may be others. There is no alternative for FPC closure besides reinstituting a manual process that, as I remember, took about 15-30 minutes per closure. I'm trying to arrange a few weeks' grace. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:27, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
None of those search results are part of the main Twinkle gadget - the main script is at Mediawiki:Gadget-Twinkle.js, and you can find the others at Special:PrefixIndex/Mediawiki:Gadget-twinkle. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 15:49, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Navigation popups is not on the list of broken scripts, but it appears to be broken on my end. Dunno if it is related to this issue or not, just wanted to bring it up in case it is. --I am k6ka Talk to me! See what I have done 00:54, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

K6ka@ see [[Wikipedia talk:Tools/Navigation popups#Anyone else getting recent breakage? for the current failure of popups. DuncanHill (talk) 01:34, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Assorted changes mentioned and unmentioned above, have resulted in a measurable performance improvement of 500ms for every page view and every single user: phab:F679897. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 06:27, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's a great goal, and it's to be applauded. However, how many thousands of people's scripts have we had to break to get there? Do we even know? We didn't know how many scripts were using Sajax until after its removal was approved, and as far as I can tell we have no idea who's actually using them. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 14:13, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Honestly, this is getting very typical of the coders. They don't think they need to announce things. I stumbled upon this by accident, and learned that the featured picture candidates closing tool is going to break in less than a week. And I have no idea how to fix it, or even how to get it fixed. Because these things don't need announced? Would it really have been technically impossible, two months ago, to notify anyone using a sajax script? It doesn't seem to have been that hard to locate them... Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:53, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It was announced many years ago that the library would be removed.--Anders Feder (talk) 19:22, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It was certainly announced some years ago that document.write and document.writeln would cease to be supported, although I don't recall an actual date being given. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:37, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Redrose64: Really? It was announced how? Banner message? Talk page message to users of invalid scripts? Or something that hardly counts as an announcement, like a listserv with fewer subscribers than the numbers affected? I suspect the latter. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:22, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Like Adam, I'm glad to have stumbled across this (even if only a few days before the scriptocalypse). I've notified en.Wikt, where (fortunately) it doesn't seem very many users will be affected. -sche (talk) 20:03, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Rendering of Bold and Italic in Chrome and Firefox Browsers

I run Chrome and Firefox in Windows 7. I noticed that Chrome browser does not render BOLD text as bold - it looks like normal. And that ITALICS render as boldish text. In Firefox, text looks as expected. Please repeat the experiment and report your results. I have reported the bug to Phabricator. They want more info. Thanks Codwiki (talk) 15:05, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Works fine for me in both browsers and IE. Eman235/talk 15:24, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Win7 Chrome OK. 2601:601:0:25:9C04:C9A2:64CB:125C (talk) 16:45, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If Chrome behaves differently, then your Chrome installation is faulty. It may have different fonts set (with no proper bold), or your cache simply needs clearing. Go to More Tools > Clear Browsing Data. Chrome is known to show glitches when its cache is full. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 20:17, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks User:Edokter It was font settings - the standard font setting was Segoe UI semi-bold and I guess bolding semi-bold does strange things. Codwiki (talk) 03:22, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Strange global login behavior and bugs with Gecko based browsers

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T108196

Beginning yesterday I have been having very frustrating problems relating to global or single-user login across Wikimedia sister projects. For example, on the latest attempt, logging in via Wikipedia logs me into most sister projects, but not Wikisource and Commons and a few odd others like the test Wikipedias and a couple random Wikimedia sites. Logging in via login.wikimedia.org logs me into Commons but none of the rest. Similar problems affect logging out. I could log out of Wikipedia and still be logged in and able to access preferences and everything else in Wikiquote. I have tried clearing my cache and clearing cookies, and this doesn't help. I've tried creating a new profile in Firefox, and this doesn't help. I've tried using Seamonkey, and this doesn't help. Chrome seems to work fine with global login. djr13 (talk) 16:12, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Bug filed here. Ironholds (talk) 16:16, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
There's a thread at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive273#Login problems (started by Friendly Seven) on what appears to be a similar matter. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:29, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
For reference, I have not so far had any error messages as the user in that thread reported. Of course it's possible it could be related somehow. djr13 (talk) 16:41, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Just wanted to note I confirmed this with latest stable Firefox:
  1. signed into Wikipedia and noticed I wasn't signed into any other project;
  2. signed in on Wiktionary and found I was logged into Commons, Meta, and Wikidata;
  3. signed out on Wikipedia, and found I wasn't signed out of any other project;
  4. signed out on Wiktionary, and found I was signed out of all projects
I couldn't reproduce with Chrome. Logging into and out of Wikipedia logged me in and out of all the other projects. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 16:34, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Djr13 and Consumed Crustacean, could you try again and see if the issues are still happening? I think they should be fixed now. Legoktm (talk) 20:40, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Appears to work so far. Successfully went to some of the sister projects that worked before with no issue. When I went to Wikisource the notice that I am now centrally logged on and need to refresh appeared, after which I was logged on as normal on all the rest of the sister projects I continued to try. I'll check back here if I have any further issues including spontaneous logouts. djr13 (talk) 23:29, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The problem is back again. I was being randomly logged out, and this happened a few times which I temporarily excused as possibly due to in-progress attempts to fix the issue. However, just now I logged back into Wikipedia to find myself still not logged into Commons. djr13 (talk) 16:38, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I use Firefox 39, and over the last few hours, up to about a minute ago, I've noticed that I keep getting spontaneously logged out (entirely within Wikipedia), typically when I go to preview or save an edit. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:50, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm also experiencing spontaneous logouts. I'm using Iceweasel 24.4.0 (a Debianized version of Firefox). My current connection also seems to be losing packets (apparently network congestion), though this has not previously affected my WP logins. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:55, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Firefox have just sent out an update, raising the version from 39.0 to 39.0.3, maybe it's related. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:42, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Or maybe it's the fix. Akld guy (talk) 01:41, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That's what I meant... I can't have been too clear --Redrose64 (talk) 08:21, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No, it's just a security update for a PDF-related exploit found in the wild. djr13 (talk) 16:38, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
A day later, I'm no longer having that problem. I got that update in the interim, but I'm guessing that's a coincidence. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:21, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I use the latest stable Google Chrome 44 and I had the problems that Redrose64 mentioned above. Before having those problems, Commons recognized my account and I was able to upload an image from German wikipedia, then few hours later I wasn't logged in automatically and whenever I tried to log in, it gave me always the output message:

Login error
Incorrect password or confirmation code entered. Please try again.

Even at Wiktionary I had the same problem. I tried Google Chrome 44 and Firefox 39 on Android 5.1.1 (Google Nexus 9), Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome 44 on Windows 10, and I had the same problem. Now it does automatically log me in and it doesn't output the password error when trying to log in, maybe because I did a password reset within 30 min ago. I will write back if the issue happens again. Cheers (and thank you Redrose64), Friendly Seven (talk) 10:21, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

CSS misbehaving

Just for documentation, if this turns out not to be a real problem, I looked at a history today and every time there was a place to undo another person's edits, there was a "Thank". I also went to a diff and the added information did not show up in green which makes it easier for me to identify what's different. Eventually, a diff did change to green.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:26, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Surely there normally is a "thank" link? --Redrose64 (talk) 23:24, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Vchimpanzee: It's now part of Wikipedia layout, you can now thank other editors for an edit they made. Showing appreciation to others it's a good point in my point of view. Cheers, Friendly Seven (talk) 10:28, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I can't explain it, but I'm happier without it. I just thank people the regular way. Seeing it with every "undo" is just annoying. I found out to change my CSS so I don't see it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:24, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The green and yellow were slow to come up for me today. Maybe it's just my slow Internet.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:59, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Vchimpanzee: If by "green and yellow" you mean the "Display diffs with the old yellow-and-green colors and design" gadget, I made mine one heckuvalot quicker by turning it off at Preferences → Gadgets, and doing this instead. Your equivalent page would be m:User:Vchimpanzee/global.css. Another benefit is that the gadget is then operative everywhere - commons, French Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:10, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's normally fast enough, but thanks. And I really do need those colors.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:14, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I thought the yellow and green was CSS, but it's gadgets.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:28, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Vchimpanzee: It is a gadget. There are three kinds of gadget: those that use both JavaScript and CSS; those that are purely JavaScript; and those that are purely CSS. OldDiff is one of the purely CSS ones. All purely CSS gadgets can be enabled in either of two ways: by marking the checkbox at Preferences → Gadgets or by adding a suitable @import rule to your CSS file; but don't do both or you'll get two copies. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:07, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I knew at one time how to get to my CSS, but I've forgotten. By the way, below I ask about hatnotes and links to main articles which are disappearing. I don't know whether this is somehow related, but no one has answered. I'm leaving for the day.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:12, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Preferences → Appearance, first box. --Redrose64 (talk) 00:37, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Lua

Does anybody know how to use various symbols and scripts as self.args. i.e. args. in Lua? For example, if I want to use self.args.ћирилица (cyrillic script) I get redirected to Debug console and don't know what to do... I guess there're some extra signs before and after the text self.args.он отхер сцрипт ор витх вариоус сумболс. --Obsuser (talk) 00:57, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Obsuser: Use self.args['ћирилица']. You can only use the dot syntax with names that only consist of a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _, and that don't start with a number. If you try to use it with any other string, it's a syntax error. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 02:16, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mr. Stradivarius: Thank you! --Obsuser (talk) 02:28, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mr. Stradivarius: Actually, it's not working. I get Script error: Lua mistake at line --: unexpected symbol near '['. I have also problem with self:renderPerЋИРИЛИЦА(builder, 'Ћирилица', 'ћирилица'). Any way to solve these? --Obsuser (talk) 02:40, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Obsuser: self:renderPerЋИРИЛИЦА(builder, 'Ћирилица', 'ћирилица') is another syntax error. You need to write self['renderPerЋИРИЛИЦА'](self, builder, 'Ћирилица', 'ћирилица') (see here for an explanation of how the colon operator works). As for the other error, I think I will need to see your script. Can I have a link? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 03:04, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mr. Stradivarius: Here. You can compare English version and the one from link to see what I've changed (you can check differences here). I need cyrillic script for all of those words (Strana, strane, datum, lokacija, akcija etc.) so they can be used as parameters in the template. You can change module on .sr project to see if it is working (if you want) because with self.args['ћирилица'] style I get error. Thank you! --Obsuser (talk) 03:53, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Obsuser: Hmm, it looks like the best way of doing that would be to use the argument translation feature in Module:Arguments. @Jackmcbarn: I see that argument translation isn't documented at Module:Arguments/doc - is there a particular reason for this, or is it ok to encourage people to use it? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 04:30, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mr. Stradivarius: So what should I do now to make my module working with cyrillic script? --Obsuser (talk) 23:10, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mr. Stradivarius: It works differently than the getArgs in Gerrit will, so I don't want to encourage use of the old way. Jackmcbarn (talk) 00:17, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy gadgets are disabled

See also: mw:ResourceLoader/Migration guide (users), gerrit:230014, and phab:T107399

There is a thread about current problems with Navigation popups at Wikipedia talk:Tools/Navigation popups#Anyone else getting recent breakage? DuncanHill (talk) 01:21, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's being explicitly blocked from loading with the console message "Gadget "Navigation_popups" was not loaded. Please migrate it to use ResourceLoader. See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Gadgets>. ". There must have been a very recent change that blocked it. Nakon 01:22, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Not just popups - wikEd and a couple of other tools are offline as well. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:35, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Does this include the "Change UTC-based times and dates, such as those used in signatures, to be relative to local time." gadget? --NeilN talk to me 01:58, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
This is likely affecting any gadget that wasn't updated recently. See this commit. Nakon 02:00, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"The time has come to stop useful things working, without warning people or offering them viable alternatives". DuncanHill (talk) 02:03, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"The time has come to stop having a development staff which has no accountability to the users it purportedly supports." --NeilN talk to me 02:22, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"The time has come to stop whining about every miniscule change in Wikimedia infrastructure."--Anders Feder (talk) 02:35, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The gadgets should be loaded by ResourceLoader (the "new" method since in 2011), by updating their definition at MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition, and explicitly declaring any dependencies they might have. Helder 02:25, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I *think* wikEd shouldmight work now? At least, it'll try to load. I also fixed ExternalSearch and CategoryAboveAll. Legoktm (talk) 03:07, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
wikEd is loading for me, and so is popups (on enwiki only) --I am k6ka Talk to me! See what I have done 03:11, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I've fixed popups by merging MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-popups.js#ResourceLoader. Nakon 03:21, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
thank you VERY much indeed --Snotty (talk) 03:30, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Nakon: Thank you for finding Mxn's fix for popups. I was going through severe withdrawal. -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 06:22, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Article assessment not appearing

This gadget (available in preferences) is not working. What it does is color-code the article title and provide a little blurb with the article rating (featured article, good article, etc) so the logged-in user can see at a glance the current assessment. It quit working today, so it might be related to the thread directly above. The documentation for the gadget is at User:Pyrospirit/metadata. Thanks to anyone who can help get this useful tool working again. (User:Pyrospirit has not edited since 2012) -- Diannaa (talk) 03:36, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've updated the gadget's configuration and it should now be working. Nakon 03:40, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes it is. Thank you, Nakon. -- Diannaa (talk) 03:57, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Whoever got me back my plus sign for starting new talk-page sections (instead of having to edit the last section), thanks. It was weird; I'd see the plus sign for a second and then it would disappear. Article assessments are back too. All the best, Miniapolis 17:36, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hypothesis: there is a gadget or script that removes/hides the "new section" tab (which might display as a +, if your language setting is not "en") that you don't recall enabling or installing. This gadget or script uses Sajax, and so no longer works, so the "new section" tab is displayed as normal. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:30, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Haven't changed any of my gadgets in a while. It's gone again, and from what I'm reading a number of gadgets seem to have stopped working for some reason. The gadget I mean replaces "New section" with a plus sign, but I have neither—just the "Edit" tab. All the best, Miniapolis 23:15, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(←) ...and now it's back again, so I'll quit while I'm behind (and double-check my preferences :-)). All the best, Miniapolis 23:18, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

RefTools

This question was originally asked at the Teahouse, but an editor suggested I come here for a more complete answer.

Since 7 August, I have noticed that the templates dropdown menu on the RefToolbar drops behind the edit window when clicked. This means I cannot access the four cite templates listed on the menu. I normally use Mozilla Firefox and a Macbook Air to edit Wikipedia. I have made this edit in Apple's native Safari browser to see if the issue occurs again, and it has. Does anyone else have this problem? I have included a screenshot from Commons in case this description is unclear. Vycl1994 (talk) 14:19, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think this might be related to the activation of ResourceLoader for all gadgets. Maybe the list of dependencies which MediaWiki:Gadget-refToolbar.js loads before calling MediaWiki:RefToolbar.js needs to be updated? Helder 15:54, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It seems that Ogress (talk · contribs) is having this problem, see Help talk:Edit toolbar#Enhanced editing toolbar's Cite drop menu is obscured. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:05, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I am absolutely having this problem. I use Chrome and a MacBook. That snapshot is identical to what I see: if you can click on that tiny sliver, you get a Cite Web option pop up. I believe it started on the 7th as well. I use that menu a lot, too. Ogress smash! 19:08, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I am having the same RefToolbar problem with the drop down in the edit window. It's off and on, so maybe someone is working on it. Firefox 39.0.3. Earlier in the day, I was not having this problem. It isn't that the templates drop down behind the box. They don't drop at all when I click the arrow next to the word Templates.— Maile (talk) 19:58, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(Bump) These are definitely still not working. Ogress smash! 22:43, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Help with css

Is there a way to turn links to dab pages a different color, say orange? (blue, red, and green have already been taken.) Eman235/talk 04:18, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dab pages do not cause MediaWiki to emit special HTML, so without Javascript loading every link on a particular page to check whether that page is a dab, the answer is no. Such Javascript would probably be fairly expensive, so I don't think that's an option either. So, probably not regardless. Popups, which loads a page dynamically as you browse over the page, would probably be the best solution to your probable need. --Izno (talk) 04:27, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Izno: They do, actually; links to dab pages have the mw-disambig class for me when logged out. Unlike the disambiguation class added by Anomie's linkclassifier linked below, mw-disambig is not applied to links to redirects to dab pages (such as Abc), so the script does do a better job at marking dab links. SiBr4 (talk) 09:33, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Eman235: Your best bet would be to use User:Anomie/linkclassifier with custom css A.disambiguation { background-color:#ffa500; } - NQ (talk) 04:32, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Dude. Everything is technicolor. But it seems to work, thanks. Eman235/talk 14:58, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help_desk/Archives/2015_August_2#Wikiproject_Watchlist

Hi, is there any tool or why to do this again?--ԱշոտՏՆՂ (talk) 06:07, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

zh.wiki needs some help about google indexing

Currently, Google is unexpectedly indexing /zh/ language variant URLs instead of /wiki/ links for wikipedia.

A quick example is: https://www.google.com/#q=汉语

As you can see, the first link's URL is https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/汉语 . But if you open it and check its source, it says

<link rel="canonical" href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B1%89%E8%AF%AD" />

So since the "canonical" version is /wiki/ links, Google should follow and index it instead. But at the moment it's not for some reasons.

The most weird part is, if you search with "site:wikipedia.org": https://www.google.com/#q=汉语+site:wikipedia.org

Almost all the links in the first page suddenly became /wiki/ links (correct behavior).

The problem of /zh/ links is that they ignore user's language variant settings. I need to manually change to /zh-cn/ or /zh-tw/ variants after clicking a link from Google (which is a very common scenario). For /wiki/ links, they would automatically jump to the variants according to user's' preference.

It has been like this for months if not years. I have no idea if it's on Google or Wikipedia. I asked several times on zh.wiki but none takes responsibility or has the ability to fix it. There is some discussion on phab:T54429 but please notice this ticket itself it actually irrelevant with this bug.--fireattack (talk) 10:29, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I reported it to phab:T108443.--fireattack (talk) 22:03, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What's wrong with this article and its link on Wikidata?

Hello,

Article London and Paris Conferences is linked to a Wikidata item (d:Q450503), but this item and the attached interwiki links do not seem to appear on the page of the article, as they should. I looked at case, changed browser and other obvious answers, and found no reason for this behaviour. Any idea? Place Clichy (talk) 14:05, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I purged the en.wp page and that fixed it. --Izno (talk) 14:12, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! Place Clichy (talk) 14:15, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Library: Running a SiteNotice for logged-in users

Hi all, at The Wikipedia Library, we have developed an open research hub that helps editors discover a number of different community-led support services, including the Reference Desk, Resource Exchange, Open Access Guide and our popular free access to donated paywalled databases.

So far the donations have served over 2400 editors across a number of language communities with nearly 4500 accounts. Our main method for communicating these access donations has been bi- or tri-monthly watchlist notices, village pump messages, and social media announcing new partnerships. (see our announcing process here) .

However, we still have a number of partnerships with very useful resources that could benefit a wide range of editors, that have dozens or (in some cases) hundreds of accounts available. We realize that for some of the partnerships, this is because a resource is simply not of interest, but for many more of the partnerships, editors are missing out because our announcements aren’t reaching those who could benefit from free access to research materials. They simply don’t know this program exists.

There are a lot more potential users than the 2400 who already have accounts: most of our accounts are available for free to any editor with 6 months activity on Wikipedia and 500 edits.

We want to establish a consensus for semi-regular (every 4-6 months) English Wikipedia Site- or CentralNotices targeted for signed in editors who likely meet the basic criteria for free access.

The notices will remind editors that a) access to partner resources are available and b) that, even if editors don’t qualify for those partnerships or need our particular sources, other resources exist to help their research and contributions to Wikipedia.

The French Wikipedia Library successfully ran a similar notice several months ago with great success in informing and attracting new editors.

We think this is a valuable opportunity to grow the impact of this program and we want to make sure as many editors as possible benefit from it.

Thanks, Astinson (WMF) (talk) 14:43, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Firefox mixed content warning

If I access WP through Firefox I keep getting mixed content warnings that some of the content isn't encrypted. I don't get the same warnings using Chrome or IE. Nthep (talk) 17:50, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

User:Nthep/common.js you are including something over http from the russian wikipedia. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:56, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, changing it to https seems to have sorted it. Nthep (talk) 18:01, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hatnotes and "Main" disappearing

I knew it wasn't my imagination. I knew I saw these Wikilinks. And just now I went to a page that had a hatnote at the top and when I was about to click on the link, there was no hatnote.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:02, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are you using the mobile version? That hides the hatnotes be default. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 22:43, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No, home computer, Vista, IE9. The hatnotes and main appear and then disappear.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:48, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciate you do not have the benefit of being a digital native, but you'll need to be a little more clear in your help requests. What do you mean "there was no hatnote"? When the page was first displayed, was there or was not a hatnote? If there was a hatnote, when precisely did there stop being a hatnote? Did the hatnote disappear while you were looking at it? Did you scroll away and then it was no longer there when you scrolled back? What was the precise things that happened?--Anders Feder (talk) 16:07, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The hatnote and main were there. I saw them. Sometimes I was looking right at the screen when the hatnote just went away. I didn't actually see the main disappearing.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:15, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Never had that happen to me, but it sounds like faulty CSS. If you have any custom CSS or Javascript you could try disabling them if the problem persists.--Anders Feder (talk) 16:21, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Also, navboxes at the bottom of articles simply don't appear. They were appearing last week.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:23, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I cleared my CSS page but the same things are still happening.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:26, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Did you clear your cache?--Anders Feder (talk) 16:30, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Still doing it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:32, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I found my js page too, cleared it, bypassed the cache, and everything is still happening.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:19, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I put everything back the way it was. I moved a navbox to a user page and it displayed.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:22, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm leaving for the day.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:24, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Does it happen when you are logged out? PrimeHunter (talk) 17:27, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hypothesis: there are two gadgets or scripts, one to remove/hide the navboxes and hatnotes; the other to display them. They are loaded in that order. Previously, the second one nullified the first, so navboxes and hatnotes were displayed. The second gadget or script uses Sajax, and so no longer works, so only the first script is effective, and so navboxes and hatnotes are briefly displayed until the first gadget or script runs at which point they hide. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:27, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Redrose64 I'm not aware of any gadget or script to hide the navboxes, hatnotes, and mains. I do know that on my recently created user page they display. To answer PrimeHunter everything is normal when I log out except the appearance of Wikipedia. I'm uncomfortable until I sign in and everything looks normal again. As I recall, neither of you would necessarily get this joke. I'm changing from Monobook the day Donald Trump registers as a Democrat.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:07, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to say the navbox shows up in shorter articles, but I went back to one article and the navbox was gone.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:51, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Functional issue

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T108423

Hi everyone, this is Dawnseeker2000, and I'm having trouble using my account the way that I'm familiar. I use a few devices to edit, including a laptop, a desktop, and some mobile devices, but I always use Desktop View across the board. The last normal (and non semi-automated) edit that I made using Desktop View was about 24 hours ago.

  • 16:42, 6 August 2015 (diff | hist) . . (-15)‎ . . Playa del Carmen ‎ (Undid revision 674848928 by 38.67.7.155 (talk) – Notability not established) (current)

I've been able to make several AWB edits in the same period, but I've been unable to use the normal browser-based interface in Desktop View because of a symptom that looks like a WYCIWYG (What You Cache Is What You Get) problem that Firefox users have reported seeing on occasion. I'm primarily a Firefox user on a Windows 10 desktop PC but also use a Windows 7 laptop, a couple of Android devices, a Chromebook, and an iPad. The symptom is this:

I log in to Wikipedia on any browser or device, and the page (article, watchlist, anything) displays for a second, then the screen shows nothing but a white background, and the page continues to try to load indefinitely. If I load the 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes article in a tab, I get the white screen. If I then try to load the same page again, Firefox is kind enough to tell me that the page is open in another tab, and it includes the URL: wyciwyg://(number)/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Cape_Mendocino_earthquakes.

The suggestions for this problem are to clear the browser's cache, disable all add-ons, or to use Firefox's Safe Mode. I hoped for the best and tried these suggested fixes, but haven't seen any improvement, and on top of that, I'm seeing the same symptom across all platforms, operating systems, and browsers that I'm using. I'm able to edit on the mobile devices only while using Mobile View only and I'm stumped on how to be able to return to normal editing. It just seems so unlikely to have the same symptom across so many devices:

  • Windows 10 PC
    • Firefox 39.0.3
    • Chrome 44.0.2403.130
    • Microsoft Edge 20.10240.16384.0
  • Windows 7 PC
    • Chrome 44.0.2403.130
    • Firefox 39.0.3
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (Android 5.0.0)
    • Firefox 39
    • Chrome 44.0.2403.133
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab (Android 4.4.2)
    • Chrome 44.0.2403.133
  • Apple iPad
    • Chrome 40.0.2214.73

I made several test accounts, and each works fine using Desktop View on the mobile devices (desktop and laptop editing is also normal) so that tells me that this is not a workstation issue. Has this behavior been seen before or are there any ideas on which way to go from here? I definitely want to keep my contribution history, but I'm not against changing my username, if it turns out that that is the only way to go. Dawnseeker2000 23:32, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Dawnseeker2000: The standard recommendation here is to completely empty your Special:MyPage/common.js, Special:MyPage/vector.js, and Special:MyPage/monobook.js pages. In my experience, that tends to fix random issues like this, and tells you that it's due to a malfunctioning user script. Let me know if that works. --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 23:45, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Dan, clearing out the monobook.js did the trick. Dawnseeker2000 00:04, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Dawnseeker2000: Thanks. I've checked with one of our performance engineers and he's confirmed the source of the issue was what I suspected. I filed phab:T108423 to track the work to implement a fix. Happy editing! --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 01:23, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Dawnseeker2000: I've looked at User:Dawnseeker2000/monobook.js, and the obviously-problematic code in this version is this:
function inc (file) {
  var lt = String.fromCharCode(60);
  var gt = String.fromCharCode(62);
  document.writeln(lt+'script type="text/javascript" src="/w/index.php?title='+file+'&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"'+gt+lt+'/script'+gt);
}

inc("User:Lightdarkness/aiv.js");
because of that document.writeln. You might be able to restore everything apart from those lines. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:34, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the detail, Redrose. What's funny about this is situation is that each time I added something to that page, I was always careful to leave a complete edit summary detailing which new tool I was experimenting with, except the once instance where I added that code. So aside from not knowing which one that was, all functionality has been restored, and I did add back a couple of tools that haven't been merged into the gadgets area of preferences. Thanks again for looking at this, Dawnseeker2000 15:00, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Dawnseeker2000: Its purpose is to add one HTML element to every Wikipedia page: 
<script type="text/javascript" src="/w/index.php?title=User:Lightdarkness/aiv.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>
which in turn loads User:Lightdarkness/aiv.js when you visit any Wikipedia page. What that script does, I don't know, except that it concerns Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. I would suggest asking Lightdarkness (talk · contribs), but they've made one edit in the last three weeks (and nothing in the preceding four and a half years). --Redrose64 (talk) 19:27, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor News #4—2015

Read this in another language • Local subscription list • Subscribe to the multilingual edition

Did you know?

You can add quotations marks before and after a title or phrase with a single click.

Select the relevant text. Find the correct quotations marks in the special character inserter tool (marked as Ω in the toolbar).

Screenshot showing the special character tool, selected text, and the special character that will be inserted


Click the button. VisualEditor will add the quotation marks on either side of the text you selected.

Screenshot showing the special character tool and the same text after the special character has been inserted


You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team have been working on mobile phone support. They have fixed many bugs and improved language support. They post weekly status reports on mediawiki.org. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving language support and functionality on mobile devices.

Wikimania

The team attended Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. There they participated in the Hackathon and met with individuals and groups of users. They also made several presentations about VisualEditor and the future of editing.

Following Wikimania, we announced winners for the VisualEditor 2015 Translathon. Our thanks and congratulations to users Halan-tul, Renessaince, जनक राज भट्ट (Janak Bhatta), Vahe Gharakhanyan, Warrakkk, and Eduardogobi.

For interface messages (translated at translatewiki.net), we saw the initiative affecting 42 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 56.5% before the translathon, and 78.2% after (+21.7%). In particular, Sakha improved from 12.2% to 94.2%; Brazilian Portuguese went from 50.6% to 100%; Taraškievica went from 44.9% to 85.3%; Doteli went from 1.3% to 41.2%. Also, while 1.7% of the messages were outdated across all languages before the translathon, the percentage dropped to 0.8% afterwards (-0.9%).

For documentation messages (on mediawiki.org), we saw the initiative affecting 24 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 26.6% before translathon, and 46.9% after (+20.3%).  There were particularly notable achievements for three languages. Armenian improved from 1% to 99%; Swedish, from 21% to 99%, and Brazilian Portuguese, from 34% to 83%. Outdated translations across all languages were reduced from 8.4% before translathon to 4.8% afterwards (-3.6%).

We published some graphs showing the effect of the event on the Translathon page. Thank you to the translators for participating and the translatewiki.net staff for facilitating this initiative.

Recent improvements

Auto-fill features for citations can be enabled on each Wikipedia. The tool uses the citoid service to convert a URL or DOI into a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. You can see an animated GIF of the quick, simple process at mediawiki.org. So far, about a dozen Wikipedias have enabled the auto-citation tool. To enable it for your wiki, follow the instructions at mediawiki.org.

Your wiki can customize the first section of the special character inserter in VisualEditor. Please follow the instructions at mediawiki.org to put the characters you want at the top. 

In other changes, if you need to fill in a CAPTCHA and get it wrong, then you can click to get a new one to complete. VisualEditor can now display and edit Vega-based graphs. If you use the Monobook skin, VisualEditor's appearance is now more consistent with other software.  

Future changes

The team will be changing the appearance of selected links inside VisualEditor. The purpose is to make it easy to see whether your cursor is inside or outside the link. When you select a link, the link label (the words shown on the page) will be enclosed in a faint box. If you place your cursor inside the box, then your changes to the link label will be part of the link. If you place your cursor outside the box, then it will not. This will make it easy to know when new characters will be added to the link and when they will not.

On the English Wikipedia, 10% of newly created accounts are now offered both the visual and the wikitext editors. A recent controlled trial showed no significant difference in survival or productivity for new users in the short term. New users with access to VisualEditor were very slightly less likely to produce results that needed reverting. You can learn more about this by watching a video of the July 2015 Wikimedia Research Showcase. The proportion of new accounts with access to both editing environments will be gradually increased over time. Eventually all new users have the choice between the two editing environments.

Let's work together

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineer David Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions at mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help.
  • If your wiki would like VisualEditor enabled on another namespace, you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.
  • Please file requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the styling menu in Phabricator.
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Please sign up for their research program.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Tuesdays at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q1 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the main VisualEditor project with the bug.

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre directly, so that she can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:01, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete a script page

How do I delete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Iady391/monobook.js --Iady391 | Talk to me here 15:35, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Iady391:You need to ask an administrator. You'd have to ask on the Administrators' noticeboard. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 15:45, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Jo-Jo Eumerus: Thanks. Iady391 | Talk to me here 15:46, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
What you did there is correct, even if MediaWiki doesn't parse the page as usual (see e.g. phab:T70757). Helder 15:55, 8 August 2015 (UTC). @He7d3r: Thanks.[reply]
 Done by Deor — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iady391 (talk • contribs) 16:52, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
For future ref: what Iady391 (talk · contribs) did was to add the line 
{{db-g7}}
to the page. This works on JavaScript (and CSS) pages; it's documented at {{db-g7}} and also at {{db-u1}}. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:40, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2-minute difference between time in signature and history

When signing a comment with four tildes, what could cause a difference between the time in the signature and the time in the revision history?

This diff from Swedish WP has a 2-minute difference, which is more surprising to me than a one-minute difference would be. (I guess you can't know from the diff that the signature really was made by ~~~~, but it was, by me.)

Now I notice the previous comment to mine on that page, made 28 minutes earlier, has the same 2-minute time difference, and the comment 49 minutes after mine has a 1-minute difference.

I looked through diffs of a few random talk pages, and didn't encounter this. Is it normal for it to occur occasionally? --83.255.46.175 (talk) 02:29, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia runs on a server farm of multiple machines. The difference could be due to a difference in the clocks on for instance a web server and a database server.--Anders Feder (talk) 04:08, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
One minute is very common. More than one is rare but I once saw four minutes in [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:13, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Disable Global Javascript on one wiki?

Resolved

Is anyone aware of a way to disable the global.js page on certain wikis? Avicennasis @ 06:16, 24 Av 5775 / 06:16, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See mw:Help:Extension:GlobalCssJs#To exclude a wiki.--Anders Feder (talk) 06:23, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
And here I was scouring Meta for it, since that's where the global page is, but never thought to check Mediawiki. Thanks! Avicennasis @ 06:35, 24 Av 5775 / 06:35, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The edit pages for global css and js display meta:MediaWiki:globalcssjs-warning-css and meta:MediaWiki:globalcssjs-warning-js. The MediaWiki defaults are currently used. Maybe meta should create versions with a link to mw:Help:Extension:GlobalCssJs. The text could also say "all Wikimedia wikis" instead of just "all wikis". PrimeHunter (talk) 12:53, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
See also: phab:T108516 (Add page indicator with help link to m:Special:MyPage/global.js). Helder 13:18, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Page" tab

From today certain tabs, such as History, are rolled into one tab called Page. Is this something I have done by adding or removing scripts, or changing my preferences, or is this a site development? If it is a site development, is there a script which would allow me to have History, Protect and Watch tabs showing all the time, as I use them a fair amount. In particular, I use History very frequently. It is probably my most used function. SilkTork ✔Tea time 09:04, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Found it. It was a box I must have ticked in Preferences. SilkTork ✔Tea time 09:12, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) @SilkTork: I'm assuming you have the monobook skin installed. Uncheck "Add Page and User dropdown menus to the toolbar with links to common tasks, analytic tools and logs" in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets under Appearance. - NQ (talk) 09:14, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Google Cache

Several issues with Google's Cache feature:

  • The "centrally logged in" message is not shown
  • Typing in the search box will show the autocomplete instead of a list of Wikipedia pages
  • The current version of CSS pages is used; for example, a long search box appears even when it was short at the time
  • Templates with a link to toggle between collapsed and expanded are shown in expanded mode, and clicking on the link will show the actual Wikipedia page instead of applying the action to the template on the Cache page

GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 14:46, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You mean when viewing a Wikipedia page through Google's cache? That is a feature that is broken on Google's end - we can't fix their software.--Anders Feder (talk) 14:53, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Chart displaying issue

Hi. I have an issue with the way that template:chart family trees are displaying the last (vertical) lines. As you can see, in the the examples posted here, the last line(s) are not perpendicular on the middle of the boxes, instead, they are at the edge of them. But this happens only on the last columns. I tried to align the boxes in a lots of ways, but without success. Does anyone know how to fix this problem. I have some experience in working with tree charts and I suspect that it is a Template:Chart technical issue. But I'm not sure. Thank you --Daduxing (talk) 20:26, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Does [2] do what you want? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:20, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much PrimeHunter. I'm using familytree.js script, and I concluded that after switching from the script (Art) to Template, that line | |!|}} is dissapearing. In fact, from the start, the script is not adding it at all, and therefore the indesirable displaying. --Daduxing (talk) 06:33, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Edit summary saved texts

I recently installed Windows 10 with its Microsoft Edge browser in order to save and retrieve text that I use in the Edit Summary field. So far so good. But every text I have ever used in the Edit Summary is now presented to me or partially presented to me, depending on the characters I type into the Edit Summary field. But there are various texts that I never want to use again (errors/better wording invented) and I want to selectively delete them. I don't see anything about how this can be done. How? Thanks. Hmains (talk) 22:37, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Please contact Microsoft. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 06:28, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
To uninstall Windows 10 and roll back to Win 7 or 8, Start button -> Settings -> Update & security -> Recovery -> Go back to Windows x -> Get started. I've done it and it's painless. Takes about 15 minutes. I had no problems and all settings, preferences, and favorites were restored. Akld guy (talk) 07:04, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Where is VeblenBot's code?

I'm quite active in the peer review community and I'd like to propose some changes to the bot. I've been given permission from Ruhrfisch, who currently manages the bot in behalf of CBM (currently inactive). However I'm having some trouble finding where the code actually is. Any of the links provided on the user page or toolserver turn up dead ends. Where is the actual page with the code contained? I would be very grateful for a response, as when I have access to the code I can then propose specific changes for discussion. Cheers, --Tom (LT) (talk) 01:30, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I replied to this on Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard#Where is VeblenBot's code?. — Earwig talk 02:25, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Block lengths

When I block someone for a month, how long is the block? 2,678,400 seconds (86400 seconds, i.e. one day, x31), or 2,592,000 seconds (86400 x30), or 2,628,000 seconds (86400 seconds x 365 [days in a year] / 12, i.e. one-twelfth of a year), or however many seconds it takes to ensure that the block will expire at the same time on the same day of next month? Or is it something else? Nyttend (talk) 04:20, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Successkid.jpg. Beat WMF by 2 minutes.--Anders Feder (talk) 05:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If only I'd not spent so long trying to format my silly PHP example so nicely, eh? ;-) --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 05:55, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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